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MUCET 2017 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 318 (2018) 012053 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/318/1/012053
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Performance Evaluation of Low Cost LoRa Modules in IoT

Applications

Shuhaizar Daud1, Teoh Shi Yang1, Muhamad Asmi Romli1, Zahari Awang
Ahmad1, Norfadila Mahrom1, and Rafikha Aliana A. Raof1
1
School of Computer & Communications Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Perlis,
02600 Arau, Perlis, Malaysia.

Abstract. LoRa is a low power long range wireless communication platform that is designed as
an efficient communication platform for small, low powered devices. This makes it very suitable
for battery powered devices and IoT implementation. This paper evaluates some low cost LoRa
modules available on the market and their suitability, energy efficiency and performance during
operation. Two low cost LoRa transceiver from Semtech Industries, the SX1272 and SX1278
were tested for their power consumption and maximum transmission range. This study have
evaluated the two LoRa solutions and found that the SX1278 have a better transmission range
and uses lower energy compared to the SX1272 thus making it more suitable for embedded
implementation as a data gateway.

1. Introduction
An increasing number of radio technologies enabling low-power wireless communication over long
distances has emerged in the past years. Ultra-narrowband technologies such as Sigfox (Labège, France)
and Weightless-N, as well as spread-spectrum technologies such as LoRa allow for communicating up
to few kilometers, and to build up low-power wide area networks (LPWANs) that do not require the
construction and maintenance of complex multi-hop topologies [1].
A key characteristic of LPWAN technologies is indeed the ability to trade throughput for range and
vice versa, i.e., one has the ability to fine-tune physical layer (PHY) settings to select a more sensitive
(but slow) configuration that allows communication over a longer distance. This flexibility makes
LPWAN technologies particularly appealing to developers of Internet of Things (IoT) applications
requiring long-range communications with relatively low data rates.
LoRa technology is a new wireless protocol designed specifically for long-range, low-power
communications. LoRa stands for Long Range Radio and is mainly targeted for Machine-to-Machine
(M2M) and IoT networks. LoRa can be operated at the Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM)
frequency band of 433 MHz, 868 MHz, and 915 MHz. LoRa is primarily intended for portable devices
operating up to ten years on battery power alone in regional, national, or global deployment [2, 3]. This
makes it very suitable for Internet of Things deployment since it uses very little power and could run for
years without maintenance.
This paper tested 2 of the most popular LoRa solutions available on the market on an embedded
platform for their effectiveness and efficiency as a data communication gateway.

Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution
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Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd 1
MUCET 2017 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 318 (2018) 012053 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/318/1/012053
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1.1. LPWAN and LoRa

Low-power wide area networks complement short range wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
Low Energy, and IEEE 802.15.4, and represent an interesting alternative to cellular technologies for
urban-scale IoT applications. The success of LPWANs is due to their ability of providing long-range
communication to thousands of devices at minimal cost and limited energy expenditure [4]. Longer
communication ranges allow for drastically simplifying duty cycling and networking protocol, as
LPWANs can form star topologies where the low-power end devices are able to directly communicate
with a more powerful orchestrator [5]. This also allows for designing asymmetric communication
schemes and to shift the load to the more powerful central device.
In order to increase the communication range, LPWAN technologies must improve the signal-to-
noise ratio (SNR) at the receiver, either by narrowing down the receiver’s bandwidth (reducing the
receiver’s noise-floor) or by spreading the energy of the signal over a wider frequency band (effectively
reducing the spectral power density of the signal). NB-IoT and Weightless-P, for example, encode the
signal in low bandwidth (<25 kHz) to reduce the noise level and keep the transceiver design as simple
and cheap as possible. Sigfox an
d Weightless-N further narrow the signal into ultra-narrow bands as narrow as 100 Hz, further reducing
the perceived noise.

1.2. LoRa Technology

LoRa is a proprietary LPWAN technology from Semtech (Camarillo, CA, USA) that recently attracted
significant attention due to its ability to trade efficiently communication range against high data-rates,
thus enabling IoT applications at an urban scale [6]. LoRa spreads the signal over a wider frequency
band, and is more resilient to jamming and interference.
LoRa architecture defines Data Link (DL) layer above the physical layer or wireless modulation
used to make long distance communication link [6]. There are many wireless systems that use
modulation Frequency Shifting Keying (FSK) at the physical layer because it is a highly efficient
modulation to achieve low power. In addition, FSK modulation facilitates demodulation process with
the possibility of a small error rate.
The advantage of LoRa is that the ability of long-distance communication, depending on the
surrounding environment or barrier at a particular location. The technology uses low power, high
security transmission with AES encryption that allows for longer battery lifetime and better mobility
[1]. LoRaWAN is a Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) based on LoRa technology that allows
LoRa devices communicate to each other and work as a wide area network. This is particularly beneficial
for long distances between short range protocols and GSM [7]. LoRa and LoRaWAN™ both have a link
budget that is better than the standard of other communications technology.
The core of LoRa technology is its Chirp Spread Spectrum (CSS) modulation: the carrier signal of
LoRa consists of chirps, signals whose frequency increases or decreases over time [7]. LoRa’s chirps
allow the signal to travel long distances and to be demodulated even when its power is up to 20 dB lower
than the noise floor. Because of this aspect, carrier sensing in LoRa is quite challenging: LoRa radios
allow carrier detection via Channel Activity Detection (CAD) mode, a special reception state consuming
half of the energy compared to the normal reception mode. However, the signals produced by different
LoRa networks operating on different settings could create interference leading to false detections.

2. Test Setup
In this paper, we have tested two LoRa modules for their suitability to be used in Internet of Things
(IoT) implementation. As IoT devices are usually powered using battery supply, we have tested both
LoRa modules for their power consumption and maximum transmission range. Two low cost LoRa
transceiver modules consisting of SX1272 and SX1278 from Semtech are tested. Using a
microcontroller operating as the transmitter and receiver modules, system power consumption during
operation are logged and maximum transmission range are tested.

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MUCET 2017 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 318 (2018) 012053 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/318/1/012053
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2.1. Arduino Controller and Data Gateway

Arduino is a microcontroller ecosystem that consists of a processor platform and a software IDE.
Because of its open-source nature, it is very popular in the embedded world because of its simplicity
and ease of use. The platform supports Java and C/C++ programming language together with a multitude
of other languages including assembly.
In this paper, Arduino Uno as shown in Figure 1 is used as the controller platform to handle sensor
input and connectivity to the LoRa modules and Internet communication.

Figure 1. Arduino Uno microcontroller.

Arduino supports both battery and USB power and could be easily be programmed through the USB
interface. The specification of the Arduino Nano used in this project is given in Table 1.

Table 1. Arduino Nano specifications.

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MUCET 2017 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 318 (2018) 012053 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/318/1/012053
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2.2. LoRa Modules

In this paper, two low cost LoRa modules utilizing LoRa chip from Semtech are used. The SX1272 and
SX1278 are both capable of long range wireless transmission with the SX1278 a newer model with some
improvement made to it.

2.2.1. SX1272.
The SX1272 (Figure 2) can act as transceivers for long range modem. The SX1272 have high
interference immunity and provides long range spread spectrum communication.

Figure 2. SX1272 LoRa module.

It is a technology that can achieve over -137dBm by using precision crystal. This transceiver
support high performance IEEE802.15g. It offers 3 bandwidths with is 125 kHz, 250 kHz and 500
kHz. The frequency set from 433 MHz to 1020 MHz.

2.2.2. SX1278.
The SX1278 (Figure 3) also can act as transceivers for long range modem. The SX1278 have high
interference immunity and provides very long range spread spectrum communication
.

Figure 3. SX1278 LoRa module.

It is a technology can achieve of over -144 dBm. This transceiver support high performance
IEEE802.15g. It offers 3 bandwidths with is 125 kHz, 250 kHz and 500 kHz. The frequency set from
137 MHz to 1020 MHz.

2.3. System Architecture

The system consists of a transmission node acting as the transmitter node and a data gateway as the
receiver which provides network communication to the internet. By using this approach, it is possible
to have multiple remote nodes connected to single data gateway and at the same time reduce cost and
complexity to implement.

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MUCET 2017 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 318 (2018) 012053 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/318/1/012053
1234567890‘’“”

2.3.1. System Block Diagram

System architecture consists of two nodes acting as the transmission node and another one acting as the
gateway. The system architecture is outlined in Figure 4. The entire system is divided into transmission
node (sensor node) which will gather all sensor data and transmit it to the data gateway node.
The transmission node gathers data from input sensor ranging from humidity sensor, temperature
sensor and luminance sensor. It is acquired by an ADC inside the Arduino microcontroller, digitized
and averaged before being transmitted by the LoRa transceiver. The data gateway also consists of
another Arduino microcontroller connected to a LoRa transceiver configured as a receiver. An Ethernet
module provides internet access through RJ45 connection to the network.

Humidity
Sensor
Data Ethernet
Transmission Module
Temperature Arduino LoRa
Sensor Controller Transceiver
LoRa Arduino
Transceiver Controller
Luminance
Sensor

Data Gateway
Transmission Node

Figure 4. System architecture.

2.3.2. Test Sensors

In this system, 3 input parameters have been selected for implementation ranging from luminance sensor
(LDR), humidity sensor and temperature sensor. All the sensors are integrated to the Arduino
microcontroller for conversion process before being prepped for transmission to the gateway.

LDR Light Sensor

The Light Dependent Resistors (LDR) is a sensor that is used to detect light intensity. The resistance of
the sensor varies with light intensity detected by the sensor with higher resistance in low intensity and
lower resistance in higher intensity. The LDR specifications are given in Table 2.

Table 2. LDR sensor specifications.

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MUCET 2017 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 318 (2018) 012053 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/318/1/012053
1234567890‘’“”

DHT11 Humidity Sensor

DHT11 is humidity sensor measures both temperature and humidity of surrounding air and sends the
reading in digital format. The sensor is rated for an accuracy of 5% from 20%-90% humidity and is used
as an input sensor in this system. The specification for the sensor is given in Table 3.

Figure 5. DHT11 sensor.

Table 3. DHT11 humidity sensor specifications.

Sampling for all the sensors are done every 5 second and filtered using a moving window average
before being transmitted to the gateway.

2.4. Experimental Test

To test the performance of the transceiver, two testing procedures have been carried out which is power
consumption test and maximum distance test. Power consumption test are done by logging the current

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MUCET 2017 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 318 (2018) 012053 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/318/1/012053
1234567890‘’“”

requirement of the nodes during transmission and calculating the power used by multiplying the voltage
and current used during the operation.
Maximum transmission range test are carried out by checking the RSSI until the signal is lost. The
test are done in a line of sight inside the university compound with the aid of GPS and Google Maps.

2.4.1. System Setup

In this system, the transmission node (sensor node) setup consists of the DHT11 sensor which gathers
humidity and temperature reading and an LDR which gathers luminance reading as shown in Fig. 6.
Both of the sensor are connected to an Arduino Uno that acquires and processes the sensor data. DHT11
are connected to the digital interface (DIO1) and the LDR is connected to the analog input (AI0) while
the LoRa transceiver is connected through the SPI protocol at the ICSP header.

Figure 5. Actual transmit node setup.

Figure 6. Actual data gateway setup.

The data gateway (Figure 6) does not have any sensor attached to it and merely transmits the
incoming data from the sensor node and handles communication to the Internet and cloud service. An
Arduino Mega2560 is used for as the main controller and an Ethernet module (ENC28J60) is used to
provide internet access to the gateway. Data transmitted from the sensor node are processed here before
being transmitted to the Internet to be stored in a cloud service.

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MUCET 2017 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 318 (2018) 012053 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/318/1/012053
1234567890‘’“”

3. Result and Discussion

In this study we have collected power consumption and transmission range data from both of the
modules during transmission. Average power requirement of the system during data transmission are
averaged across 10 samples. Range test are taken after 10 consecutive timeout that signifies out of range
condition.

3.1. Power Consumption

Power consumption of the transmission node and gateway node are monitored using a current meter and
voltmeter. Actual power requirement of the system are then calculated by multiplying the values to
produce the power rating. An average reading of 10 values are taken and tabled in Table 4, Table 5 and
Table 6. The transmission power settings are set inside the code and passed to the transmitter modules
as configuration flags.

Table 4. SX1272 average power consumption during operation (average of 10 reading).

Power Setting Reading Avera Average
ge Power,
Readi W
ng
Max Voltage, V 5.047 0.2423
Current, A 0.048
High Voltage, V 5.044 0.2219
Current, A 0.044
Intermediate Voltage, V 5.042 0.2168
Current, A 0.043
Low Voltage, V 5.038 0.2015
Current, A 0.04

Four transmission power settings are tested for the SX1272 and the average power requirement of
the SX1272 shows an increase from the low power transmission to the maximum power. The same
pattern is also visible for the SX1278 whereby the power requirement increased according to the
transmission power.

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MUCET 2017 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 318 (2018) 012053 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/318/1/012053
1234567890‘’“”

Table 5. SX1278 average power consumption during operation (average of 10 reading).

Power Reading Avera Average
Setting ge Power,
Readi W
ng
Max Voltage, V 5.145 0.3499
Current, A 0.068
High Voltage, V 5.142 0.2622
Current, A 0.051
Intermediate Voltage, V 5.149 0.2523
Current, A 0.049
Low Voltage, V 5.146 0.247
Current, A 0.048

Table 6. SX1272 and SX1278 power consumption difference.

Average Power Difference
Requirement (W) (%)
Transmission SX1272 SX1278 %
Power
Low 0.2015 0.247 18.42
Intermediate 0.2168 0.2523 14.07
High 0.2219 0.2622 15.37
Max 0.2423 0.3499 30.75

Comparison of the SX1272 and SX1278 shows a higher power requirement of the SX1278 compared
to the SX1272. An average difference of about 15% is expected except at the maximum transmission
power where the power consumption differs by about 30% between the SX1272 and SX1278.

3.2. Transmission Range

Maximum transmission range test are carried out by moving the receiver away from the transmitter until
the signal is lost. The transmitter location and test range are given in Figure 7.

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MUCET 2017 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 318 (2018) 012053 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/318/1/012053
1234567890‘’“”

Figure 7. Maximum range test setup.

The maximum range are tested for a number 10 times and averaged. The SX1272 library supports a
total number of 3 transmission mode which varies the transmission sensitivity, bandwidth and speed.
The SX1278 library supports all 10 different transmission modes and the results are logged in Table 7
below. The difference between transmission modes can be referred inside respective modules
datasheets.

Table 7. SX1272 and SX1278 maximum transmission range.

SX1272 SX1278
Mode Range Range
1 350 m 1km
2 250 m 1km
3 N/A 1km
4 220 m 900m
5 N/A 800m
6 N/A 700m
7 N/A 650m
8 N/A 600m
9 N/A 600m
10 N/A 500m

From the results gathered, it is found that for the SX1272, lower transmission mode which is
optimized for low speed, maximum range does give the longest transmission range which is 350 meters.
But for the SX1278, lowering the transmission speed and increasing the sensitivity using lower mode
configuration does not improve the range after mode 3. The maximum range achievable could probably
be improved with better antenna.
While both modules could transmit to relatively long range, the SX1278 have a much further
transmission range compared to the SX1272 albeit at a higher power requirement.

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MUCET 2017 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 318 (2018) 012053 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/318/1/012053
1234567890‘’“”

4. Conclusion
The test carried out have shown that the SX1278 has a much further transmission range compared to the
SX1272 albeit using more power during transmission operation. While the power requirement at the
maximum transmission power varies by as much 30%, at lower settings the difference is much smaller
ranging from 14-18%. This is still within acceptable values considering our test have shown that the
SX1278 has a much further transmission range reaching a distance of 1km.

Acknowledgement
The project is partly funded by Universiti Malaysia Perlis’s Short Term Grant (STG) program.

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